Here's a collection of vero (stripboard) and tagboard guitar and bass effect layouts that we have put together covering many classic and popular effects in growing numbers. Many of these have been posted on freestompboxes.org, so check that site out for great discussions on building your own effect pedals. Enjoy the builds and please also visit us on Facebook and Twitter

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Saturday, 18 February 2012

MXR ZW44 Zakk Wylde

OK you may not like the guy but this is a great sounding overdrive/distortion pedal. A modded and souped up Boss SD1 with no output buffer. I've added a clipping switch that will allow you to switch between the stock 3 diode asymmetrical arrangement, and a second arrangement of your choice. I've included 4 diodes to give a more compressed symmetrical clipping but put in there whatever you like, germaniums, schottky, LEDs, MOSFETS etc. I really like this pedal and have an original but will probably still build this up at some point anyway for the extra clipping options and because I hate the fact that the crappy bypass on the original meant that your signal chain was permanently connected to the effect input. Tsk!

26 comments:

For a second i though about putting my Sonic Distrotion for sale... But then i found out that it was just a solder bridge. :) This is just ok sounding medium gain od/distortion. Needs to be played loud for chance of any real creaminess.

If someone is not a fan of ZW, i'd really recommend Ibanez Sonic Distortion to build instead of this. This is not bad, but i think i was a bit disappointed.

Hmm. I'll try that tomorrow at rehearsal. TS9 sounds very alive with slightly cranked JCM800 - I have no complaints about that :) But maybe this could work there.. I only have Laney VC15-110 at home and this is a apartmen building, so cranking the clean is not really an option :)

I just built Wampler's Plexi Drive with J201s week or two ago, and if compared, ZW44 is quite useless. Not saying that ZW44 is no good, just that i may have expected too much. Although, Plexi Drive is more overdrive than distortion, if you ask me.

Still looking for perfect overly dirty distortion... Best so far is probably that Ibanez/Maxon Sonic Distortion (SD9). That is, in my opinion, saddly undervalued. Well. Next dist-build is probably BJB/MP Stone Grey..

I only mentioned it because when I first got the ZW-44 I was like, 'wheres all the distortion?'..Then I read that Zakk throws his in front of his Marshalls dirty channel.. I tried that and 'Boom'! the thing screamed :0)

I want to build the Wampler, Theres so many that I get lost and can't remember what I'm doing next lol... I want to try the SD9 too! I'll get there soon...The Stone grey sounds nice too.

I'm in the middle of the Catalinbread Heliotrope..So touch wood that works :)

I just made a single pedal with two Wampler Plexidrives and I LOVE IT! I don't know if you're talking about that one but I'm guessing. I use one side for low-gain crunch and the other for medium-gain drive. Combining both makes them fat and nice!

I made the Stone Grey the other day and I was a bit underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, it's very good! It's just not the sound I'm after personally.

Geiri: How was the stone grey? Lacking in distortion like this one?.. :) Just thought that i'd save myself from the trouble, if it's not "over the edge" enough...

Vince: SD9 is definitely worth a try. In my opinion it beats the living daylights out of classic metal distortions like HM2 and even MT2. Yeah. Wouldn't use that for base tone, but it's really good. Here's mine: http://mirosol.kapsi.fi/varasto/purkit/green.JPG Style is slightly soviet-inspired.. :)

Nice looking pedal :o)... The Riot sounds nice too, I'm waiting on toggles switches from china for that one though. I'll definitely try the SD9. But deffo try the ZW44 in front of the dirty channel as a booster...

Hi Guys...can I get away with a 22n or 15n for the cap off the emitter ??..trying to use some of my stock stuff up before ordering more as ive lots of opamps/cans etc that i cant remember what i got them for..18N thats a strange value ive not used before

Hello here!A newbie question about the "Led+" wire : If I want to build this one with a millenium bypass, can I use this wire to drive the millenium? I'm afraid the resistor would lower too much the power... I guess the best way is to forget this "led +". Right?

I did this project ..... and it sounds .... but has a whistle in the 1M pot (GAIN ) when this at max and I have to turn down most of the gain to stop whistle and this has happened to me in many other projects and have never come to the conclusion that may be ..... however the project did MXR GT -OD and I came over and smoothly ....... who can help me with the whistle will stay forever grateful

Hi all ..... went back to build this project and only had to make a change that I forgot to comment before the transistor ..... must rotate 360 degrees, it is not like other image says okay .. ... here I give you link the transistor data sheet ... to be guided and see .....

Just recently started building (at least trying to build) pedals and there is one thing i couldnt figure out here, what is the LED+ and how am i supposed to wire it off board? And is it a 3MM Red LED or something else?

Hey Ali. The LED+ is the positive leg of the LED. The size of that LED doesn't mater as it's just the indicator LED for the pedal being on. If you click on the top where it says "offboard" you'll see how to wire up the pedal to th switch. The only thing different is the indicator LED for this pedal has the attachment to the board rather than to the DC jack.

I would highly suggest if your starting out to build something less complicated than this, as the more components on the board the more likely there is for something to go wrong. Also, I would read the build guide, tab at the top, first before building anything.

Thanks for your answer. I thought of that LED as another one which is not the usual offboard led that goes into the 3PDT.Complicated layouts are not the actual problem for me, but the unclear offboard connections of these LED's were. Thanks again.

Hey guys, I wanted to make this pedal, butI wanted to make it “hotter”. I wantit to have more gain, to kick my JCM800 from clean (high sensitivity channel) into overdrive. My stock zw-44 works but lacks a tiny bit of distortion. And now I wanted to ask how I can obtain this. Should I switch the diodes? If yes, to wich ? Or should I switc a capacitor before the gain pot? Any help would be much appreciated! :)

There's some tricks to increase the gain of the Tube Screamer you could use with this circuit. Well, the Gain pot is already 1M, as well the 4 diodes clipping.Then I found this mod, but I didn't try it:Change the 4k7/0.047uF attached to pin 2 of the opamp to 2k4/0.1uF. I guess this comes from Keeley.Just beware the amoung of hiss and noise. In case of squealing you could increase the 120pF, but it is already more than double than the Tube Screamer.

I don't know how much difference could do the opamp, I never try neither this, but perhaps a 4559D can make the sound beefy.

A drastic mod will be the adding of a hard clipping diodes somewhere. I don't know how much this is possibile.

The op-amp usually gives just a little slightly difference in the amount of gain and in the frequency. Indeed the layout give you a pair of suggestions as well the original IC. I suggest the TL072, too. I don't know what op amp you used, but I'm pretty sure that your pedal sounds just good enough.Of course you could make some experiment just for your curiosity.

The Marshall 3005 Lead 12 was a mini-stack with a 12 watt solid state head made in England between 1988 and 1991. People claim it's a gr...

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Not all these layouts are verified and some are put together from unverified schematics. So if you have good luck, or bad luck for that matter, then please let me know by dropping a comment in the topic. Thanks.

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